Editor of The Sun visits Rochdale

David Dinsmore at the Bangladesh Association Community Project

The Editor of Britain’s biggest selling daily newspaper made a surprise visit to Rochdale at the weekend after being invited by Simon Danczuk MP to see some of the challenges facing the north of England.

David Dinsmore, who took editorial charge of The Sun last year, spent a day in Rochdale meeting with small business owners, members of the local Asian community and local people in Falinge.

As part of his stay he visited Number One Riverside and spoke to John Hudson, the head of Rochdale Development Agency, before meeting local people and happily taking questions on contentious issues like the future of Page 3 and The Sun’s investigation into halal pizzas at Pizza Express. He also visited a mosque, met with the owner of The Baum pub, Simon Crompton, visited Chantilly lingerie shop to celebrate Small Business Saturday and had a chat with locals at Falinge Park café.

“He got to meet all sorts of people and was very well received. He even ended up having a drink with Lisa Stansfield in the Baum,” said Simon Danczuk, adding that he was really pleased that a major tabloid editor was keen to learn about Rochdale.

“I invite lots of people to come to Rochdale because I think it’s one of the most interesting places in the country, but I was surprised when the editor of The Sun took up my invitation and said he wanted to come. He seemed really interested in learning about our town.

“All credit to him, he made it clear that he likes getting out and about and leading from the front. I was impressed by his approach.”

He added that while a previous Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie had continually made cheap jibes about Rochdale, he was pleased that the current editor wanted to see the town for himself rather than rely on a crude caricature.

“The Sun is keen to champion hard working, ambitious people but I wanted David to see the lack of social mobility that’s holding people back,” he said. “In Falinge he met a young father working a zero hours job and going to college to try and better himself. He’s just had to drop his college course because under a zero hours contract his hours have changed and made it impossible for him to combine study and work. This is just one example of how the system prevents people getting on.”